


The Journey We'll Tell Our Children About

by coberts



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Adventure, AltMal, Alternate Universe, M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-24
Updated: 2013-09-08
Packaged: 2017-11-19 10:00:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/572069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coberts/pseuds/coberts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Altair discovers another ability of the Apple, time travel. After convincing Malik, they both travel into the future, but they get separated — Malik lands in New York, and Altair – in Galicia, Spain. They won't stop until they find each other. (2 POVs)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A lesson to learn

**Author's Note:**

> I want to thank my friend Lana for editing the chapter for me!

“Malik, I’m telling you, this kind of opportunity may never happen again.”

“Oh, really? Are you planning on giving the Apple away?”

Altair frowned at his remark.

“No… It’s just we can’t tell for sure if the Apple might lose its ability or not.” He comes closer to Malik who looks away from him, they stand less than two feet away from each other. “I really want to do it, Malik, to learn something new.”

“Fine! Why aren’t you going to do it alone then?” Malik responds, staring at a stone wall stubbornly, avoiding any form of eye contact. “What’s it in for you if I join?”

Altair sighs and comes even closer to his friend; their robes brushing against each other.

“I don’t want to do it without you. Of course, I could go there by myself, but I bet I wouldn’t be able to stop wishing you were there with me.” Malik turns to him and they look in each other’s eyes. “I want to do it either with you or not at all.”

Altair can swear that for a brief moment he sees a smirk form on Malik’s face, he knows he has convinced him; He knows him well enough to tell that. Malik, however, would never give Altair the satisfaction of admitting he had convinced him so easily.

“This is a sick idea, Altair.” Malik whispers. “We can’t just time travel on a whim.”

“It’s not a whim, don’t you get it? We are able to foresee what is going to happen to our civilization centuries ahead of us, maybe there’s going to be some cataclysm that we can prevent from happening. Let’s consider it our mission for humanity.”

Malik looks at him with doubt.

“That’s just your excuse, isn’t it?”

Altair shakes his head, but he knows deeply that Malik is somewhat right. He kind of does it for himself. And for Malik – Altair wants him to be the one who also gets to know the power of the Apple. He deserves it, especially after what he has gone through lately, and Altair really desires to experience such an adventure with someone who is the most important to him.

“Malik, this is going to be the greatest journey we’ll tell our children about,” Altair admits.

After a long while, a smile appears on Malik’s face. He turns around to hide it.

“Fine.”

“R–really?!”

“Yes, we’ll do it tomorrow morning,” Malik says, trying to remain indifferent.

“Wow, why so soon?” Altair was convinced they’d do it in a couple of weeks, at least.

“Let’s do it tomorrow, before I change my mind,” Malik drawls.

“Oh, okay. Tomorrow morning it is then,” Altair placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “This is going to be fantastic, trust me. We will not regret it.”

“We better not,” Malik responds quietly.

“We won’t.” he takes his hand off of the Rafiq. “I’ll come to your room in the morning, I will bring all the things we should travel with.”

“Fine,” Malik replies, still not looking at Altair. “I’ll be waiting.”

“Goodnight, Malik.”

Altair starts going to the door, but Malik stops him with his voice.

“Wait.”

Altair turns around with a grin on his face and sees his companion looking at him. “Just say it, Malik”, Altair thinks to himself. But he doesn’t hear what he really wants to hear.

“What time do you want to travel to?”

Altair stops smiling and tries not to show his disappointment.

“The year 2012.”

“That… that is over eight hundred years into the future, Altair.” Malik isn’t so sure about the whole journey now.

“I’m aware of that, but I think that year is going to be important; the Apple gives me this feeling. If we want to time travel, that’s the year we should visit.”

“O–okay. I just hope you’re not wrong.”

“I’m not, I assure you.” Altair isn’t as confident as he seems, but he doesn’t want to reveal it. He thinks that one man with doubts is enough for the adventure. “I should… be going now. Sleep well, Malik.”

Malik nods, “Goodnight”.

Altair gets out of the room as slowly as he can, still having hope. When he finally closes the door, he doesn’t go anywhere – he leans against the wall, mad at himself and the whole situation. He wouldn’t admit it, but he really wanted Malik to ask him to stay for the night. For the next couple of minutes he wonders whether he should go back inside and ask that himself, but in the end, he just leaves the place and heads to his own chamber, trying not know think about how he has just disappointed himself.

***

Malik is having a hard time sleeping that night. He knows he must rest, so he could be ready for the journey, and that’s why he has managed to close his eyes for a couple of hours, but as soon as the sun comes out, he can fall asleep no more. So he just lies on his back, thinking about what Altair told him earlier that night.

The truth is, Malik didn’t want to ask Altair what year they were going to visit, when he stopped him from going out of the room. What he really desired to say was to ask Altair if he wanted stay with him until the next morning. When Malik told Altair to wait, he was confident enough to ask him that, but when Altair turned to him and the Rafiq saw his brown eyes and his smile, somehow, he lost all his perkiness. The vision of Altair laughing at him or simply denying the offer was too overwhelming for Malik, so he just bit his tongue and quickly came up with a question regarding the journey.

When Altair finally left the room, Malik was furious at himself for missing the opportunity. There was even one moment when he started heading to the door, wanting to go out, call his friend and finally do it – invite him to stay over. In the end, he abandoned the plan, thinking that maybe Altair wanted to spend the night preparing for the adventure of theirs.

Malik, now lying in the bed, with rays of sunlight in his face, perfectly knows that was just an excuse, but he decides not to go back to these thoughts, so he wouldn’t hate himself even more for doing what he did (or rather what he didn’t do). Instead, he starts thinking about the upcoming journey and what he should expect from it.

“What are we going to encounter?” he asks himself. He’s getting really nervous and he cannot help it. “Am I going to meet one of my descendants? But what if my lineage stops at some point?” That possibility makes him upset. “What if I won’t have any children at all?” He gets even more depressed. He really does want to have a family, to have his own children. He has always dreamed of a son.

The thought of dying too early to procreate terrifies him. It’s been horrifying him since the day of his brother’s death. He wasn’t really scared of dying before the quest in Solomon’s Temple because, well, he’s an Assassin and he had been trained to fight and kill enemies, and not to be afraid of sacrificing his own life for a higher cause, but he also remembers the moment Kadar sacrificed himself, so Malik could get away with the Apple. And the Order didn’t only lose one of its assassins that day; Malik also lost his brother. The only family he’d had at that time. And from that day, he has been asking himself: Was it all worth it? Was losing a brother worth acquiring the Apple? How is it possible that an object is valued more than a human life?” That’s why Malik hates the artefact very deeply. Kadar wouldn’t have died if it weren’t for this stupid Piece of Eden.

When Malik gets really depressed, he tortures himself thinking that it should have been him who died, not his younger brother. Kadar had his whole life ahead of him and Malik totally regrets bringing him to the temple in the first place. He shouldn’t have done that – Kadar didn’t even have enough experience for such a quest.

Malik touches his stump, still not able to stop contemplating. He’s been living in the belief that he really deserved to lose his left arm. In fact, he doesn’t even think it was enough. Oh, what he would do to have Altair lying next to him who would comfort him, so Malik could relax and quit feeling sorry for himself.

“Stop”, he finally says to himself. “Just stop thinking about that, it’s not worth it. You will have your family if you really want to and you will die of old age. You can have a wonderful life, even if you’re an Assassin.” These words soothe him, although he’s still in a state of worry. He has no idea if this time travelling is the right thing to do. He worries it can be too dangerous, but then he reassures himself with the thought of having Altair by his side. Yes, he’s going to have Altair with him and therefore nothing will happen to him. They help each other out, they are brothers. They are even something more than that, they have a special bond.

He can lie in the bed no longer. He gets up, cleans himself up and puts on his white robes and his black djellaba – the long, loose-fitting outer robe he is used to wear as a Rafiq.

Malik hears a knock on the door. “Speak of the devil…” he thinks. He opens it and sees Altair dressed in his usual white robes, holding nothing but the golden Apple.

“Good morning, my friend,” Altair grins. “May I come in?” and before Malik even has the time to answer, Altair goes into the room.

“Where are all the things you said you would bring?” Malik asks, sounding annoyed. “You didn’t mean the Apple only, did you?”

“Oh, no! Of course not. I am… going with the equipment to your room at the very moment, actually.”

A frown crosses Malik’s face.

“I don’t get—” he starts, but Altair interrupts him.

“Look at me, Malik!” Altair raises his hand that holds the Apple.

Malik stares at Altair as he hazes and, eventually, disappears completely. Malik is so shocked he isn’t even able to move, he only keeps staring at the spot Altair was just standing in.

“I wish you could see your face!” he hears Altair speak from behind who then bursts out laughing. Malik turns around and sees Altair standing in the open door, with two small bags and the glowing Apple in his hands. Malik hits Altair’s shoulder with his palm.

“Stop playing with that thing, Altair!” he shouts.

“Ouch! I wasn’t! I just wanted to check if it works again, that’s all. And… it does.” Altair starts laughing again.

“Ugh, be more serious about this.” Malik mutters.

Altair places the bags on his fellow Assassin’s bed, the Apple still in his hand.

“Okay, so I figured there’s no point in taking any food with us,” Altair looks at Malik and sees him pout. “I’m sure we’ll manage to acquire something to eat when we get there. It’s just better to have as little burden as possible.”

Malik raises his eyebrows, not masking his doubts.

“And if we’re not able to find food, we will just return here,” Altair concludes.

The Rafiq rubs his chin and comes to Altair and his bags.

“What have you brought then?”

“Um, I also assumed we can’t be sure if the people from 2012 would want the money we normally use.”

“Right, they could have some other currency,” Malik agrees and looks at the bags with curiosity.

Altair nods and grabs one of the bags. He opens it and pulls some shiny objects out of it. He drops them on the bed and Malik notices they’re just a couple of rings, necklaces and bracelets. Malik takes a gold, red gemstone ring, and glances at it with a strange facial expression. In the next moment, he looks at Altair a little surprised.

“This is going to be our money,” Altair admits proudly. “Jewellery is timeless, Malik. Everyone loves treasure and I don’t think the people from the future would be different. What I have learned from the Apple is that humans never change, and when it seems like they do, it’s just an illusion.”

“Let’s say I get it…” Malik says, staring at his friend with wonder. “But… where did you get these from? Don’t tell me gathering jewellery has been your passion for all these years, Altair.”

Altair fakes laughter. “Oh, no, no! I just… borrowed the treasure… from a friend.”

Malik’s eyebrows plunges into a frown. “I don’t underst— wait, did you use the Apple to get it? That’s not right, Altair, and you know that!” Malik pats Altair’s shoulder again.

“No, I didn’t! I didn’t have to…” A second later, Altair realises that came out wrong. “I mean—”

“Wait, what were you doing last night? Who is this frie—” Malik opens his eyes wide. “Oh… I get— I get it,” he says, a bit awkwardly. “That… that is too much information for me.”

“No!” Altair shouts, embarrassed. “You got me wro—”

“No, I got you, Altair,” Malik interrupts him. “I don’t care, I mean, this is none of my business, right? You are a free man. You can do whatever you want with whomever you like. Your actions do not concern me.” He raises his arm and shakes it indifferently to show how little it does concern him.

“But I didn’t—” Altair tries to explain himself, but Malik cuts him off once more.

“Let’s just… leave it.”

Altair sighs, looking defeated.

“Did you bring anything else, besides your… treasure?” Malik asks sarcastically.

“Just some weapons,” he responds and takes a few blades out of the second bag and drops them on the bed next to the jewellery. “We do not want to drag everyone’s attention, so we’ll just have a couple of knives. We’re also going to have to take care of changing our clothes, when we get there. I suppose they are not going to wear our kinds of garment in the future.”

Malik still remains unsatisfied. Altair sees it and crosses his arms.

“What, you have better ideas?”

The Rafiq shakes his head.

“No, I think we won’t be able to think of anything else. So, I guess… that’s it, isn’t it? We’re really doing it. Are you nervous?”

Altair nods, smiling.

“Very. And you?”

“Oh, of course not, there’s nothing better than some time travelling! I love it.”

They burst out laughing.

“I’ve made up my mind, Altair,” Malik gives his friend a concerned look. “But if you don’t want to do it, we don’t have to.”

“No, I do. I think… we simply should do it. The Apple gives us the opportunity, so I guess there’s a reason for it. We may learn something from it, it is full of wisdom.”

“For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow,” Malik recites. “Those are Al Mualim’s words, remember?”

“Yes…” Altair admits. “He was right about that. But there always has to be someone who increases it. And this time it’s us.”

“Okay then,” Malik smiles at him reassuringly.

They both start filling their pockets with the jewels and a bunch of the knives. When they’re done, they stand in front of each other, stare at each other’s eyes and think the same: “Are we really doing the right thing?”.

“Lock the door.” Malik says finally.

“Ooh, it sounds interesting,” Altair whispers and gets hit by Malik for the third time. “Ouch! Okay, okay, I’m going!”

The Assassin comes to the door and locks it with a copper key.

“Okay then!” Altair says loudly and turns around to Malik. “Let the great journey begin. We’ll stay there for a day or two, no longer.”

They approach each other and Altair puts the Apple in his right palm. Malik’s heart starts beating faster as he sees Altair activate it, which makes it glowing. Altair reaches his left arm to Malik.

“Take my hand, Malik,” Altair says with a serious expression on his face.

Malik scowls at him, “Seriously?”.

“I’m sorry, there’s no other way.” Altair lies. And he certainly isn’t sorry at all.

The Rafiq sighs and grabs the hand of Altair who then looks at the Apple and, with his mind, commands the Apple to start using its ability. The room begins to fade away and the men hardly even see it now. The light surrounds them from every side.

“What if something goes wrong, Altair?” Malik asks. He has to shout because the noise of the Apple makes difficult for them to hear each other.

“Don’t worry, Malik, we’ll deal with it; we always do.” Altair responds, smiling comfortingly. “Here it comes… You’ll get a warm feeling for a moment, but it’s normal.”

The light becomes so bright they have to close their eyes. Malik gets more nervous and squeezes Altair’s hand. The surroundings begin to behave strangely – it seems like it’s getting very windy and the chamber is disappearing. Or maybe the men are the disappearing ones. They both start feeling the heat in their bodies, and Malik, who’s not used to that power of the Apple, gets really terrified.

“Altair, if something happens, I want you to know that I—” He cannot finish the sentence as he screams awfully with pain. The high temperature doesn’t stop rising and they both feel like it’s burning their insides. Malik comes closer to Altair and embraces him – his friend does the same.

They remain hugging each other, scared to death, until something unknown, some kind of a huge pillar, hits them so hard that for a second they’re sure they are going to die right now, in the embrace, not even knowing where they are exactly.

But instead, everything suddenly goes pitch-black and their last thought, before they both faint is:

“We’re alive.”


	2. The fall of the King

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank my friend Lana for editing the chapter for me!

“Altair…”

The few things Malik is aware of are that he is on his back and there is something soft beneath him, something he’s lying on.

His body is in a strange and unusual position that makes him feel very uncomfortable. He slowly opens his eyes and is blinded by a golden bright light, leaving him squinting his eyes. The Dai doesn’t remember what he and Altair have done in his chamber yet, and unknowingly thinks he’s in his bed, welcoming a new day. He closes his eyes, wanting to cherish the dawn, but then he winds a malodorous smell and opens the eyes again and in the next moment it all comes back to him, the memory of the last night and morning and leaves him drowning.

“Altair.” he moans weakly.

Malik sees he certainly is not in his chamber anymore, maybe not even in Masyaf at all. His surroundings are nothing he is familiar with, which makes him scared and his heart beat like a hammer. It’s not even dawn, as he previously thought, but long after midnight, most likely. The unusually bright light that blinded him before was just of a tall metal lantern. He wants to get up, but he feels too overwhelmed and exhausted to make such moves – it feels like the Apple, or the time travel itself, drained the whole energy out of him. He is not even able to shout or to call for Altair.

Malik manages to find out where he’s located — in-between two dark and unutterably high walls towering over him that make him feel a bit claustrophobic. The place looks like a narrow street or maybe a blind alley. Lying on his back, the Dai looks around to find his companion, but he sees him nowhere. In fact, he doesn’t see anyone here. He notices he’s lying on black bags, probably filled with trash that emits the awful stench.

Malik feels there is something wrong with his right arm. Still unable to move, he slowly looks at it and grimaces with pain. Somehow, his bicep got stabbed by one of his, or Altair’s, knives they had taken with them from Masyaf.

“Altair…” Malik mutters. “You and your damn kni—”

He stops talking as he realises a blade could have wounded Altair too. Maybe he is unconscious and that is why he is not answering Malik. Altair might be lying on the ground with a knife in his back and…

The Dai’s heart beats faster, the blood is pumping through his veins to his brain. He knows he has to act, he must do something. He has to get up, but before that, he has to do something about the knife stabbed in his muscle.

Malik glances at his injury and gasps. He has to choose between removing the blade and leaving it as it is. He doesn’t feel like there is a 100% good option. His impulses are telling him to pull out the knife, but he knows it’s probably stopping his arm from strong bleeding, and if he does pull it out it could end poorly for him. On the other hand, his plan to stand up in a moment and search for Altair could cause the blade to damage his bicep even more. Malik hesitates for another minute and then he finally makes his choice.

He’s going to remove the knife and after that, he has to quickly find Altair, so they both could take care of Malik’s injury. The Dai has to risk it for himself. He also has to risk it for his friend.

He doesn’t have his left arm, so he cannot take the knife out the easier way. There’s still a way to do it, though and Malik is aware of that. It is most likely the only way left.

“Just ignore the pain,” he says to himself. “There is no pain. You can do it.”

He slowly leans his head forward and puts the knife hilt in his mouth. He clenches his teeth around it and closes his eyes. He breathes heavily and thinks,

“Now.”

Malik makes a sudden move back and pulls the blade out of his arm. He spits it out on the ground and yells with pain. Tears come to his eyes, but he holds them back.

“Fuck…” he mumbles.

The pain doesn’t go away and Malik feels the warm feeling of the blood coming out of his wound. He gets shivers and lies for a minute to recover; then decides it’s time he stood up, he can’t waste his time. He knows he shouldn’t use his right arm and tries not to, so it’s hard for him to get up without any help.

Finally, he makes it and looks all over the place. His assumptions turn out to be right – he’s at some blind alley that mostly just contains black bags and junk on the ground. The walls, which are towering over him, aren’t just walls; they’re buildings, exceptionally tall ones. Malik begins feeling overwhelmed, but then remembers he has got to find Altair here somewhere. He has no interest in finding out whether the time travel worked or not – he just wants to find his companion and get out of here. This place is making him feel uneasy enough, he doesn’t want to be here just by himself without Altair.

He goes further into the dead end where it’s darker, which makes it harder for him to see what surrounds him. He calls out for Altair, but there’s no sign of him. Malik doesn’t want to lose his cool, it would break him down to admit that Altair is not here, so he grits his teeth and goes around the place, determined to find his friend. He even decides to browse the piles of the black bags with his arm, in spite of the pain, to see if Altair is lying underneath them. He isn’t, which breaks Malik’s heart into pieces.

The Dai’s wound is bleeding heavily and it comes to him that he should make a provisional bandage to stop losing his blood. If he still had his left arm, he’d just squeeze the injury, but in this case he must use a bandage. He curses himself for not bringing any medical kit with him, this is the first thing he should have thought of, not stupid knives or jewellery.

Malik tries not to think about how bad the bandage is going to be since he can make it with nothing but his teeth. He uses his blade to cut off a small fragment of his black robe, puts the fabric in his teeth and tries to wrap it around his bicep. He swears again as it falls on the ground a couple of times, but eventually he manages to bandage his arm and tie the wound tight.

Malik starts looking for Altair again, wandering around the dead end hopelessly. As minutes pass by, he doesn’t want to let himself think of one thing — that Altair is not here at all. He is too scared to admit that.

“No, he is here. He must be here,” he thinks to himself. “Or he’s probably somewhere around the corner, also looking for me.”

The Dai decides to leave the blind alley and goes out to the main street. He approaches it and stands on the sidewalk. The whole view makes him even more crushed than he was before. It seems like there are hundreds or maybe thousands of giant buildings, standing in a row in the streets; Malik sees no end of them. It is certainly night time, but it’s almost as bright as it is during noon. It genuinely confuses him, but it leads him to believe that he and Altair have done it — they have travelled into the future. Is it still Masyaf? The Dai thinks it is possible, although this place doesn’t feel like home anymore, not even a bit. But still, the world could have changed so much in the last eight centuries, so it is likely that Masyaf could have also become such a colossal city like this one that looks dozens of times larger than Jerusalem.

Malik looks around, full of hope to find Altair. Instead, he sees a terrifying view on his right side: a young couple – a black man and a blonde woman – standing a few feet away from him; the woman holding something that looks like a golden orb. The Dai opens his eyes wide as he realises the object is actually the Piece of Eden – Altair’s Apple. He must take it back.

There is no time for politeness. The couple looks unaware of the power they wield, but if one of them accidentally uses the artefact, it could be the end for them, Malik, and even the whole population of the city. The strangers examine the artefact, both commenting on it with curiosity, but the Dai doesn’t understand a word they say – they certainly aren’t speaking Arabic.

“Hey!” Malik yells.

He ignores the pain of his upper arm as he takes a knife out of his pocket, points it at the foreigners and screams,

“Put it on the ground, now!”

They look at Malik and goggle as they notice his palm wielding the blade. The Assassin sees the Apple glow for a brief moment, but fortunately the strangers don’t observe it being too absorbed staring at the knife with horror. They start moving back slowly.

“ON THE GROUND!” Malik yells. He points at the Apple and the sidewalk repeatedly to imply them what he means, his blood seeping from his wound onto the ground.

The couple gets it a second later; the man murmurs something to the girl, then she puts the Apple on the ground nervously. Malik gesticulates to make them step back, which they do. He comes to the artefact and takes it, still wielding the knife.

“Jodie, let’s get out of here before he blows himself up or something,” the black man whispers to the blonde.

Malik looks at him and frowns. He wonders in what way he understood what the man said because he’s still certainly not speaking Arabic. But the Assassin understood him anyway.

“It must be the Apple,” the Dai thinks to himself, staring at the Piece of Eden. “I think it makes it possible for people to understand other languages…”

“Wait,” Jodie, the blonde woman, says with concern. “Don’t you see his arm is bleeding? And he had the other one amputated. Michael, maybe we should help him.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Michael growls at her. “I’m not risking my life for some Arab who’s just threatened to slit our throats. We gave him this weird ball, we gave him what he wanted. Come on, now!” he says loudly as he grabs her elbow and drags her back.

The woman gives up and the couple walks away, glancing at Malik a few times to see if he’s following them. He isn’t; he stays in the same spot for a while longer, looking at the Apple and trying to figure out what he should do next.

“I don’t want it,” Malik says, looking at the Piece of Eden. The memories of him leaving Kadar behind and running away from Solomon’s temple come back to him and the artefact causes him to fill with hatred once again. He wants Altair to come and get this thing away from him.

Malik remembers that the Apple has the power to treat wounds. The Mentor used it to heal Altair when he had stabbed him in the stomach, after they had stopped Robert de Sable’s invasion on Masyaf. It would be reasonable for the Dai to use the Piece of Eden now too, but he doesn’t want to do it. “I’m not giving myself to the Apple,” he says to himself. “I’m not going to end up like Al Mualim.”

The street is quite narrow and, now, empty of people, although there’s a bunch of weird looking, big metal objects on wheels, standing motionlessly on the sides. They kind of remind Malik of the carriages from his times; it begins to get to him that the strange vehicles must be the new version of the chariots.

However, he still has to find Altair. It breaks the Dai’s heart to admit his companion isn’t anywhere nearby, but this does not mean he couldn’t have landed a street or two away. Yes, he must be looking for Malik, just like he’s looking for Altair.

The Dai’s bicep pain intensifies. He looks at his blood dropping from his arm and now he thinks he really must find his friend so they can take care of his injury.

Malik hides the knife and the Apple, glowing once again, into his pocket; he turns left and goes down the street. Altair could be here anywhere, so Malik decides he simply has to search for him everywhere. He cannot think of any better solution.

He has got the Apple with him, anyway. He still hates it with a passion, but he’s glad it didn’t fall into the wrong hands. At least he doesn’t have to worry about that.

Malik really regrets going on this journey. “What the hell were we thinking? You are such an idiot,” he thinks to himself. They did what they wanted to do – they’ve made it to the year 2012. The Dai has no idea what to do, he just feels lost, lonely and tiny in this giant city. Oh, he would give anything to go back to Masyaf, reunite with Altair and never think about time travel again. For a brief moment he wants to cry, but he holds back his tears to not lose his grip. He can’t, he just can’t do that; he has to stay cool and find a solution for this situation. He is an Assassin, he knows he will find his companion and they will go back home in an instant after they get together. It’s just a matter of time.

“We’ll deal with it, we always do,” Malik remembers Altair’s words bitterly. “Ugh, how could we be such fools? Who are we to go on such journeys? We should have never even considered doing it.”

But he’s got no time for feeling sorry for himself. He must act, and acts he does. He picks up his pace and comes out on a wider street; this one more crowded than the one he landed next to.

This is where he really gets scared. Now he understands why all the pedestrians walk on the sides of the streets, not in the centre. The strange metal carriages, Malik sees them on the move for the first time since he got here; he notices people inside who seem to control the vehicles. He’s terrified by the loud and frightening noises the objects make and all the lights blinding his eyes. He clenches them and tries to calm down. To him, it sounds like something is about to explode and he’s afraid it might actually do that in a while.

Still having his eyes closed, Malik reminds himself that nothing bad can happen — in his times they have horses to trail the carriages and the people in year 2012 seem to have found a way to run their vehicles without any help. If no one else is panicking, there’s no need for him to panic as well.

Malik opens his eyes. Some people give him weird looks, but that doesn’t surprise him. After all, he doesn’t have an arm, the other one is bleeding heavily, and his clothes must look pretty odd to them.

An old woman with grey hair comes up to him and asks with fear in her voice:

“Are you lost?” She looks at his injury. “Do you want me to call an ambulance?”

Malik, not really sure what an ambulance means in 2012, shakes his head.

“No, I’ll be fine,” he says with a trembling voice.

The woman frowns at him.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she says. “You don’t speak English.”

Still, she seems to get the Dai’s refusal anyway and goes away, leaving him wondering.

“So the Apple allows me to understand other languages,” Malik thinks to himself, kind of annoyed. “But I still cannot use it to speak them, huh? This isn’t really practical.”

Malik realises he should stop searching for Altair, at least for a moment, and find a doctor to heal his wound. Or maybe he should just use the Apple…

Suddenly, the Dai hears another awful noise; it is probably the loudest sound he has ever heard. It reminds him of a cavalry of a hundred galloping horses with him standing in the centre of it, although he’s convinced the cavalry would be even less noisy than what he hears now.

A moment later, Malik finds out what the source of the noise is — another strange vehicle in the street. If he had to compare its looks to something he’s familiar with, it would be rather just a horse than a whole carriage. It doesn’t have four wheels, but only two of them; it also doesn’t contain a roof and it looks like it’s made for one passenger only, maybe two — similar thing as with a horse.

In this case, the metal horse is driven by a man who’s wearing dark trousers, some modern garment Malik can’t name that looks like a short white robe, and a black helmet.

The Assassin is certain the horrible noise will make him deaf if it doesn’t stop in a moment. Again, he gets angry with himself for getting so scared; he closes his eyes to calm down one more time.

“Don’t be such a coward,” Malik thinks. “You’ve still got work to do. Get yourself together.”

He opens his eyes, sees the metal horse slowing down and notices the noise getting quiter. The man parks approximately a hundred feet away from the Dai and gets off the vehicle. When he removes his helmet, Malik gasps, thinking he’s going to faint.

“It’s him. It really is.”

The distance between them isn’t short, but it’s enough for the Assassin to recognise him. The man heads towards an entrance of some building, occupied by a loud crowd of people who seem to be waiting in a queue. Malik starts running there as fast as he can without hitting other pedestrians on the sidewalk.

“Altair!” he shouts with a huge relief. “Altair, here!”

There’s approximately forty feet between them, but Altair doesn’t even react to his friend’s calling. He goes into the building that Malik finds to be guarded by two large men in black clothes. The Dai begins to hear a constant sound that appears to have its own rhythm and melody.

“This can’t be music,” goes through his mind. “It’s too terrible to be music.”

Malik can’t reach Altair before he goes through the entrance, but decides he has to run after his friend. Unfortunately for him, he forgets about the guards.

They both knock him down so hard he collapses on the ground and lays on his back. It damages his injured arm so bad the pain blinds him and for a moment he forgets what is going on. Not able to get up, Malik hears a voice of one of the guards growling over him:

“If you wanna get into the club, go stand in the queue, you scum.”

The Dai feels being dragged back; they grab his legs and arm which causes tremendous pain of his wounded bicep. He desperately screams of suffer, certain that the pain will kill him here and now.

In the next moment, he totally forgets where he is and that he has moved into the future. His old memories go back to him and his mind decides to relive one of the most traumatic days of his life — the day when he lost his brother and his left arm. The giant pain reminds him the doctors wanting to cut off his limb.

“No! There must be some other way!” he shouted then. “Don’t do this, please, you can’t do this!”

He remembers how furious he was at Altair, he remembers all the anger at the man who caused him so much pain. There was this moment when Malik promised himself he would avenge Kadar’s death and kill the traitor. But later, Altair started to change and the Dai began forgiving him. He had a big internal conflict at that time – he felt like he was betraying his brother, he felt like it wasn’t right.

When they had amputated his arm and left him alone, Malik just sat there crying for Kadar. It was the only time he let himself cry and have his moment of weakness. He wished the whole day would just turn out to be a bad dream, but it didn’t.

It all goes back to him and for a brief moment he is so confused he thinks that now they’ll cut off his second arm. He starts kicking everything and everyone like crazy, mumbling that he won’t lose his limb this time. He won’t let them.

“Hey!” Malik hears a harsh, masculine voice. “You morons, what the hell are you thinking, don’t you see he’s bleeding? How fucking stupid you must be?!”

The Dai feels as they stop dragging him and leave him alone. Malik’s mind begins to go back to reality. He opens his eyes and sees the guards with disappointed faces going back to their positions, and then, he sees his saviour – it’s the man who got here by the metal horse. Now, when the Dai takes a closer look at him, he realises it’s not Altair. There is a huge resemblance between them, but Malik can tell it’s not his companion right away.

He’s still lying on the ground, watching the man coming up to him, naturally wanting to help the Assassin get up.

“I’m gonna make sure you both get fired and…” the man says, glancing at the guards, but can’t finish the sentence when a deep female voice interrupts him:

“Jesus, you’re late again, Desmond!”


	3. The loss of the Eagle's wing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank my friend Lana for editing the chapter for me!

"Malik!" 

Altair wakes up and gasps. He sits up, trying to find out where he is, sitting on a soft bed he must have been sleeping on for an undisclosed time. He's wearing a different outfit than his usual assassin one; he realises that someone have changed his clothes, though not sure why they would do that. Compared to his assassin robes, Altair thinks he almost looks naked wearing a short-sleeved purple shirt with a flower pattern and khaki shorts. After a short while, he realises it is practical nonetheless, since wherever he is now is incredibly hot. 

The assassin wipes his eyes and looks around the room. It's small, colourful, cosy and also very stifling. With a big headache, he gets up and calls for his friend once again. 

"Malik!" 

Altair has no trouble with recalling the events before he had used the Apple. He remembers holding Malik's hand and then getting hit by something and losing consciousness. The Piece of Eden has never acted this way – it hasn't made any trouble for Altair before when he wanted to teleport or time travel. 

"Well, it had corrupted Al Mualim and made him go mad," he thinks with regret. "I shouldn't have trusted it in the first place." Noticing that he doesn't have the Apple with him any longer, Altair gets up suddenly, making him dizzy. Realisation kicks in that he has no weapons and therefore is completely defenceless. At first, he wants to find the artefact, but then decides that the very thing he wants to find is Malik. 

"I swear, if anything happens to him..." he clenches his eyes shut. "Then this will be my own fault." 

Trying not to think about how he shouldn't have insisted on Malik travelling with him, Altair tries to find some useful items in the room. There's not much there; just various kinds of weird objects which he has never seen before and doesn't even know how to use. 

Considering all the strangeness he sees in the room, he thinks that he and Malik have actually achieved it – they've time travelled. 

"It... worked," the assassin says out loud, examining a small red box with a bunch of tiny buttons. He can't help it, he finds it curious. He also can't resist the urge to know how the device works. Altair presses a green button and jumps away as - in the next moment - a loud noise comes out of the object, almost leaving him shriek. 

"WHAT THE—" 

Altair clicks all the buttons at once which only turns the sound up. 

"Oh no," he mutters under his breath. "Stop, just stop. Shut up!" 

He finds the green button he previously used and hits it a couple of times until the device finally goes completely silent. He breathes a sigh of relief and wipes sweat from his forehead. 

However, he jumps again as the door is opened by a tanned man with a black moustache in his mid forties. Altair looks down at his own shirt and shorts and compares them to the stranger's clothes – they look very much the same, so apparently they must have been borrowed from the man. 

The stranger starts talking in an unknown language and pointing at the assassin and the bed repeatedly. Altair understands what the man wants him to do, which makes him more impatient. 

"No, no! Don't you tell me to lie down!" he says emphatically. "Where is the other man I came here with? Where's my—" He stops talking when he sees that the stranger keeps babbling, not even listening to Altair. 

The assassin groans, annoyed and angry. The only thing he wants to do right now is to find Malik and get the hell out of here. He doesn't think they should be even interacting with the local people either. 

The man puts his hands on Altair's shoulders, literally trying to force him to go back to bed. The assassin has enough. 

"STOP!" His head is about to explode. "I have no time for this! Please, tell me you speak French at least. Parlez-vous français?" 

All the assassins in the brotherhood have the obligation to learn a foreign language in order to become bilingual. Altair chose to study two extra languages instead of one: French and Hebrew. Being fluent in French made it possible for him to communicate with some of his previous targets, like Garnier and Robert de Sable, but also with the king of England – Richard the Lionheart himself. 

The man stops yapping and Altair, still plagued with a headache, deeply hopes to hear some words he finally understands. The stranger seems to be processing the French question, then looks at the door behind him and shouts so loudly Altair develops the urge to strangle him in retaliation. 

"No!" He yells again, losing his patience and thinking he's actually going to hurt the man. "Tell me where my friend is, give us our equipment and—" 

The stranger with a moustache yells again and Altair guesses he might be calling for someone, but the assassin doesn't have time for all of this, so he just pushes the man away and starts heading the door. He almost gets out of the room until his path is blocked by a girl standing in the doorway. 

The girl is a teenager, no older than eighteen years old; she is most likely the moustache guy's daughter. Altair eyes her long dark brown hair and big green eyes. What repels him is her outfit – she's wearing really short trousers and a red top with no sleeves. He stops for a moment, trying to imagine what the people from his times would do to her if they saw her in the streets. She looks at him and, seeing his mad expression, seems to shrink a little. However, she overcomes her fear and finally speaks to him: 

"I do speak French, monsieur." 

Altair loosens up a little when he finally hears something he can actually understand. 

"G–good. That's... great," he mutters. 

Her father, who stands behind the assassin, clears his throat. 

"Um... he wanted you to lie down for a bit," the girl gets very awkward. "But I assume you don't–" 

Altair sighs. "Listen. I do not care who you all are and what you want me to do. Just tell me where my friend is and we'll leave you—" 

The girl gasps and grabs her hair murmuring something in her mother language, which leaves Altair a bit surprised. 

"Th–there was a friend with you?" 

The assassin frowns. 

"Yes, of course there wa— Where is he?" 

Altair pushes the girl away and goes out of the room; the rest of the house doesn't look very different from it. He starts looking around, calling for his companion. 

"Malik! Malik! Can you hear me?!" 

The girl grabs his arm and with unexpected strength turns him around to face her. 

"Calm down," she says, but she's far from being calm herself. "He's not here. We found only you." 

Altair gets more and more confused. The look of the girl who's about to burst out crying doesn't help him understand the situation at all. 

"What are you talk— Found me where?" 

Her father approaches her and they both begin a heated conversation. They fight like this for a longer while and Altair realises the language they speak in must be Spanish. It differs from the version of Spanish he has heard back in his time, but he's almost positive about it. 

They keep talking and Altair has probably never felt so impatient (and bloodthirsty) in his entire life. 

"HEY!" he yells. 

The girl shouts at the moustache man for the last time and turns around to Altair. The man sighs angrily, whispers something and goes away. She finally has a chance to talk to the assassin. 

"A few hours ago we were on our boat, fishing." Her voice cracks a bit. "Then I saw you in the water. I mean, I actually saw you fall into the water. It doesn't make sense because there wasn't anything you could fall from..." 

She frowns and stops for a moment. Altair becomes uncomfortable, assuming the Apple must have made him appear right above the water; that's why he fell into it and that's what confuses the girl right now. For a short while he's trying to come up with an excuse that would explain this to her, but then some other thought hits him like a lightning. 

Malik. The girl claims not to have seen him, but that doesn't change the fact he travelled with Altair, so he must have landed in the same place as his companion. And if Altair appeared above the water and was noticed by her, then it can also mean that Malik did actually land next to him, however... underwater. 

Altair can swear his heart stops beating for a moment. 

"Take me there," he growls. "Now!" 

"I–I can't..." she says helplessly. "I tried to convince my—" 

This is the moment Altair loses his patience. There is no time waste. They can't be chatting in this house any longer while Malik might be fighting for his life in the water. 

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND," he yells, not caring about scaring the hell out of the girl. "HE DOESN'T HAVE AN ARM!" She jumps aghast, but Altair is certain he's still the more fearful one here. He, however, realises he won't get her help if he keeps frightening like that, so he tries to settle down and says, much more quietly: 

"Please... You have to help me." 

Altair gets a little surprised as she simply nods her head quickly and answers: 

"Wait outside. I'll be there in a moment." 

After being walked to the front door by the girl, a vexed Altair leaves the house and prays for her to join him as soon as possible. 

He examines the neighbourhood and realises he must be far away from his home – the Holy Land in general. He sees a lot of orange-roofed white houses that aren't big, but look very different from the ones in Masyaf. Altair almost immediately can tell they wouldn't fit his times at all. The town doesn't seem to be as big as the assassin expected a twenty-first century town to be, though. 

Altair can't keep standing in one spot, so he begins to walk in circles. For a brief moment he's so frustrated he feels like screaming at the top of his lungs, but then suddenly shuts down and sits on the hot ground. 

He starts blaming himself. It is all his fault. He really does not want to think about it now, but if something happens to Malik... Altair knows he was the only one who actually wanted to go on this journey; the Dai probably joined him just because Altair would have never stopped babbling about it. He wanted Malik to experience a great adventure, to make him see a whole different world and forget their world for a moment. Forget the pain Altair has caused him. 

Malik kept telling him he was forgiven, but the truth is Altair was never able to forgive himself. That's why he wanted this journey to be theirs, not just his – to make up to his friend and make him feel at least a bit better. To convince himself he hasn't brought just pain, but also a bit of joy. And now, if his best friend loses his life because of him, he certainly won't be able to live with it. 

Altair shakes his head to lock away the dark thoughts. He knows he won't help Malik if he keeps feeling sorry for himself — he must take some action. He gets up and almost starts running downtown to find his friend, but then remembers he would probably get lost doing the search — and that obviously wouldn't help the Dai at all. He approaches the front door and lifts his hand up to knock, but in the next moment it opens and the girl runs out. He sees her face sweating profusely. 

"Isn't your father joining us?", Altair asks surprised. 

She starts walking fast, the assassin trying to keep up the pace. 

"Stepfather," she corrects him. "No, they almost didn't let me leave the house with you. I had to tell them I wanted to make sure you get home from here." She rolls her eyes. "But you don't live in the area, huh?" 

Altair shakes his head which makes the girl sigh. 

"Thought so. Great..." 

"It's going to take us forever to paddle the boat!" he mutters with anger in his voice. "He should have joined us!" 

The girl stops walking and gives Altair an annoyed look. 

"He doesn't trust you! And I can't even blame him, I shouldn't trust you either. You haven't even told me your name!" 

"I..." the assassin gets a little embarrassed. "I'm Altair..." 

"Much better. I'm Elisa. Let's get going!" 

Elisa starts running down the street, Altair joins her. 

"And don't worry about paddling, Altair. We're gonna use a motorboat anyway. It's much faster." 

The assassin has no idea what a motorboat is, but it seems like he's going to find out soon. 

They run like that for a couple of minutes, heading to the harbour. At one point they pass two boys Elisa's age who burst out laughing upon seeing her. She gets a little nervous and mutters something in Spanish, but doesn't slow down. The boys keep whispering to each other, giggling, and Altair glances at them confused, yet decides to leave it and says nothing. 

The girl and the assassin finally reach their destination and he notices a few rows of colourful little boats floating in the water. The boats look weird and unfamiliar to Altair, so he figures those must be the things called motorboats. 

Elisa frowns and scratches her head. 

"And here comes the tricky part..." 

Altair gives her an impatient look. 

"We don't actually have a motorboat." 

"What?!" 

The girl turns red. 

"I was hoping we'd manage to— Yes!" she lifts her finger, pointing at something. "That's my school teacher! I think she'll let me borrow her boat. Stay here." 

Altair does as she says and Elisa leaves him, approaching her teacher as fast as possible without looking suspicious. He observes them from a distance — the woman smiles when she sees Elisa, they greet each other and talk for a short moment. It looks like Elisa drops something on the ground. They both lean down to pick it up and then continue their conversation. Elisa keeps nodding and grinning until they say goodbye to each other and the teacher leaves the harbour, passing Altair by. He rushes to the girl as soon as the woman stops gazing at him. 

"And?" he says, getting more and more nervous. 

"I didn't ask," she replies calmly and lifts her finger to prevent Altair from resenting. "But! I did get her keys anyway." Elisa pulls out something tiny and silver out of her pocket. "I'm a terrible person," she sighs. "and a pretty good pickpocket." 

"What do we need the keys for?!" Altair shouts angrily. "Let's just take any boat and—" 

"Hey!" Elisa looks at him confused. "We obviously couldn't use a motorboat without the keys, so chill out!" 

Altair realises this must be another 2012 thing – somehow the people can't use their vehicles without some kind of key. It sounds stupid and unnecessary to Altair at first, but then he figures it might also stop thieves from stealing the boats, so maybe it's not so silly after all. 

When the assassin blushes a little and says nothing, Elisa points at a teal boat and says: "It's this one, get on." She looks around, unmoors the boat and joins him. 

Altair observes her as she puts the key in a small hole and twists it which creates a loud unnatural noise and makes him jump with fright. However, when he looks at Elisa who seems unaffected by the noise, he assumes there's nothing wrong with it, so he simply grits his teeth and stays silent. He must have made a suspicious impression already, so he really should watch himself. 

Altair examines the motorboat and sees so many unknown objects he doesn't even try to comprehend because he knows he would surely fail. Probably the only thing familiar to him is the black boat helm, although looking much different from the helms of his times. 

Elisa keeps murmuring sentences in Spanish. Altair assumes she's trying to calm herself down. Finally, she sits down, says something very loud (which sounds like a Spanish version of "Let's do it!" to Altair) and presses a few buttons, making the boat move. The assassin sits down on a white seat next to her. Elisa turns the helm and fifteen seconds later they have left the harbour, rushing towards. 

Altair catches her glancing at him. 

"We should be there in two minutes," she says a bit awkward. "Your French... sounds a bit weird." Altair gives her a harsh look which makes her look away. However, she doesn't stop talking. "So... he has only one arm?" Altair just nods. 

"I know we don't know anything for sure yet, but..." 

He interrupts her, "Stop." He knows what she wants to say, but he just can't let himself think that. There is still hope. Maybe Malik has been floating in the water for hours, waiting for his friend's help, knowing he would come for him eventually. At least that's what Altair keeps telling himself. "He's fine." 

Elisa opens her mouth and closes it as if she wanted to say something but changed her mind and opts to give him a concerned look. She looks down at his hand. 

"And... you don't have a ring finger." 

"I do not," he simply admits, not in the mood for telling the truth or coming up with a lie. 

She awaits some explanation, but when she realises there will be none, she looks a little defeated. 

"Fair enough." 

After that, they sit like this in silence until Elisa slows down the motorboat. 

"That's the place. I remember that big rock." 

Altair gets up immediately and looks around, trying to find Malik somewhere in the water. 

"I don't see him," Elisa says afraid. 

He ignores her, takes his shirt off and throws it on the floor. 

"Wait for me here." His words sound almost like a command. 

His heart starts beating incredibly, but he ignores the fear and jumps into the water. 

If there is one thing Altair isn't good at as an assassin, it's swimming. He's never been a good swimmer or a diver, and he always avoided water while doing missions for the brotherhood since it could cost him his victory, but in one second he just forgets it and stops caring about that. This is the most important moment for him and he has to be the best swimmer he can be. For Malik's sake. 

He breathes air in and dives into the water, not even sure what he expects. Human bodies float on water, so if Malik indeed was here, Altair would easily spot him from the boat. Regardless, he keeps diving and looking for the Dai somewhere underwater. After running out of air, he swims to the surface and coughs heavily. He repeats that a couple of times until he makes sure Malik isn't here (he focuses on finding the Piece of Eden during his last try), and gets back on the teal motorboat with the help of Elisa. 

Defeated Altair - without his friend and the Apple - sits back on the seat, cursing in Arabic. He hides his face in his hands, trying to shut his mind down, to stop torturing himself. He can hear the girl breathing nervously and loudly and that doesn't help him at all. 

Finally, he looks at her standing next to him and says, with no hope in his voice: 

"So... he's gone... isn't he?" 

Elisa can't find the proper words and doesn't respond. Altair is just glad he's all wet, so the girl doesn't see the tears streaming down his face.


End file.
